Currently sheet metal caskets are constructed from various metals such as carbon steel, stainless steel, copper and bronze.
Steel caskets have heretofore been provided with protection against corrosion by electrically connecting a sacrificial anode made of zinc or magnesium to the casket, whereby the casket becomes the cathode of an electrolytic cell in the presence of ground water. Examples of such cathodic protection are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,475,902 and 3,052,946, hereby incorporated by reference herein.
It is desirable to provide steel caskets with protection against corrosion without incurring the material and labor costs associated with fabricating and installing a sacrificial anode of the type shown in the '902 and '946 patents.
Precious metal caskets such as those fabricated from copper and bronze can be more expensive than steel caskets because of the price of the raw material. Also, because the stiffness and strength mechanical properties of the various steels are typically greater than those of the various precious metals, the wall thickness of a precious metal casket may have to be thicker than that of a comparable steel casket in order to provide the necessary stiffness and strength, further exacerbating the cost differential between a typical steel casket and a typical precious metal casket.
It is desirable to provide a precious metal casket at a lower price yet which does not compromise the stiffness and strength of the casket.